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Tracking your time in Harvest

Video Content Outline

TIMESHEET TAB

SELECT PROJECT

· TASK

· DESCRIPTION

· USE THE TIMER

· DNB TASKS

IN HOUSE TIME OPTIONS

· USE THE TIMER

· USE DESCRIPTIONS FIELD

PROJECT

· LOCATING BUDGET

REPORT

· % OF BILLABLE HOURS

EXPENSES

· DAY OF REPORTING NOT DATE INCURRED

Training Video

0:00 - Introduction

  • Overview of how Workman Forensics uses Harvest for timekeeping and billing.

0:10 - Logging in and Navigating the Time Tab

  • Upon login, go to the Time tab to track time.
  • Click the green plus button to start a new entry.
  • Select the Project and assigned Task category (e.g., Administrative, Case Management, Data Processing).

1:30 - Task Descriptions & Timer Usage

  • Always write a brief task description (copy from Asana if applicable).
  • Use the timer to track work, stopping and restarting as needed.
  • Avoid multiple entries for the same task—just restart the timer.

3:00 - Editing and Locking Time Entries

  • Time entries can be edited or deleted before they are approved.
  • Once approved or billed, entries become locked.

4:00 - In-House Time Tracking

  • Only certain in-house time is billable, especially for directors.
  • Even if not billable, tracking time helps with efficiency analysis.
  • Admin team members must document specific tasks for transparency.

5:30 - Project Budgets & Reports

  • Use the Projects tab to check the budget for a case.
  • The Reports tab helps track monthly hours, billable percentage, and rates.

7:00 - Reporting Expenses

  • Go to the Expenses tab, select a Project, and categorize the expense.
  • Include a mandatory note explaining the expense.
  • Attach a receipt for reimbursement.
  • Use the date of reporting, not the date of occurrence.

8:30 - Conclusion

  • Summary of key functions in Harvest for timekeeping and billing.

Transcript

The purpose of this video is to show you how Workman Forensics uses Harvest, and to know how to record your time. This is our timekeeping system and also our billing system.

So first of all, whenever you log in, it will likely take you to the Time tab. So go to your time sheet; this is how you're going to track time. You're going to click on the little green plus button. You're going to select the Project. Make sure that you choose the task that has been assigned to you or the task category. Administrative is normally just that. It's not used very often, but just Administrative things, maybe cleaning up a client folder, cleaning up the folder after we complete the case, something like that. Case Management is really more for the Case Manager or the Responsible Investigator. Case Planning happens typically by the case manager. The Case Planning Workshop is when we all get together to talk about the goals of the case. Data processing is that. It is the data entry and also the review. So whenever we are reviewing something, we would also record it to that task, but we simply just put review in front of it and then we say whatever we were reviewing.

Finding Summary, that's at the end before the report. If we're meeting with a client, if the meeting's internal, that's the Meetings WF. The priority numbers will correspond to the case plan and also Asana. Then when we're writing the report, it'll be charged there. Trial prep and testimony, that's for hearing prep, testimony, so to separate that time out. And then if you're working on a project and you feel like some of your hours were just completely worthless and you don't even want to have to decide about it when you're reviewing your time right before billing, you can put it to DNB tasks. Now, if you put your time to DNB tasks, it will not even appear in the billing information to review it to bill to the client. So if you're absolutely certain you do not want to bill it to the client, put it to DNB tasks. If you want to think about it, record it like normal. You'll review your time before it goes to the client as part of the billing process.

With every task, whether it's for a client or internal, you're going to choose a task, and you're also going to write a description of your time. It can be very brief. I recommend using the task that's in Asana. So just go to that task, copy it, and paste it. And of course, if you're reviewing, do the same thing, just put review in front of it. And then you're going to hit start timer. So you're going to use this timer; stop it when you're not working on it, start it when you are. Now, if you started a timer for the day, and then you stop on that for a little bit and go to another case and then come back, and it's the same task, the same analysis, just restart your timer. Don't do another time entry; that gets kind of messy on the billing end. But if you're starting a new task, absolutely start a new timer.

If you need to edit your time at any point, you can just hit edit. If you need to change the date, if you need to delete it, I need to delete this one, but you can update all of that. Once it's been billed, or once I've approved it, it will lock your time, so you'll want to do that before payroll run. Your time will get locked before payroll runs and also before we bill, so just so you know that.

On the in-house options, so there are only certain in-house or Workman Forensics time that gets paid, and it's very specific, especially for directors. It'll be very specific as to what you're doing, and there will be some sort of agreement upfront. One that we used to have that we no longer have because we have some new accountants, but it was to reconcile retainers. Megan would do that. She would go to in-house time, that's how you know it, and then she would record it to operations management. But I go ahead and I track all of my time. Whether I'm getting paid for it or not, I track absolutely every part of my time so that I know how many hours I'm working in a week, how efficient I'm being with my time and so forth. So I have several options here.

Not all of these are paid. And again, if you're a director, most of this is not going to be paid unless you've been given a specific operational task. But like I said, I would just still record it, still use the timer. If you are part of the Admin team, then most of your time is going to go to Admin and Meetings, or it's going to go to Operations Management or maybe a special project if you're working on a game or marketing, something that you don't do normally. It would go there. No matter what, go ahead, even if you're not getting paid for it. You're just tracking it just for yourself. Just put, "Cleaning up Slack, doing emails, checking Asana." Go ahead and record those things so that we know what you're doing. Now, if you're an admin team member, you have to put what you were working on during that time, so make sure that you're listing what you did during that time period. It just helps with transparency and communication across the entire team.

Now, a lot of projects have a budget, and so to see that budget, you would go to the Projects tab and then you can just search for the project. This will show you where we are on things. It's not 100% accurate, but it's pretty close. And then if we're going over budget, we're going to talk about that. But if you want to see where the budget is on your case, you can do that here. I believe most people can click on it and at least see how much budget is remaining and so forth.

Then on the Reports tab, I think this is most helpful for looking at your hours for the month, what percentage of that was billable, how many billable hours did you have. And then if it was all billed at your standard rate, which your analysis rate is the rate that's entered into Harvest, and then your data entry rate is adjusted at billing, so it's going to be a little too high typically. Looking at this report, it's going to be higher than probably what's actual, but it's still a good place to start.

The last thing in Harvest is reporting expenses. So if you have expenses that are authorized to be reimbursed, you're going to go up to the Expenses tab, hit Track Expenses, choose a Project, which if it's some sort of travel or something like that, it's going to go to... Well, if it's chargeable to the client, then you'll put it to the client. But let's say it was for in-house time, and then you just choose your category. And then this says that your note is optional; it is not optional here. You have to put what this was for. You would click here if it's chargeable to the client, list that here. Let's say that it was for the benefit of a client, but it's not billable; just make it not billable.

You have to attach a receipt in order to be paid. You put the dollar amount in here. And the date needs to be the date that you're reporting this expense. It's not the date that the expense occurred. Because of the way we run our payroll, if you put in a date... Let's say that you have an expense and then you forget to enter it until a couple weeks later but payroll ran in the middle, we won't pick that up. So the date needs to be the date that you're reporting it. And I think that's all for Harvest.

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